Full Productions 2021
Hiding with Company, by Adriana Jones
Hiding with Company is a dystopian drama about a dissident looking for a good bunker and some company to ride out the apocalypse and the woman who lures her to a possible hideout under false pretenses.
Bio: Adriana Jones is a writer and performer in her second year of the UBC Creative Writing MFA program. Her plays have been performed and developed in the US and Canada at venues including Theater Row, All for One Festival Salon, Live from Gramercy Park, and the Edmonton Fringe Festivals.
Takaya,
by Jiejun Wu
Takaya is a drama about an emerging Asian Canadian writer who searches for her place in the literary world, grappling with the industry’s inequities through the telling of a story about a beloved lone wolf.
Bio: Jiejun Wu is an emerging theatre artist working on the unceded and ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. She has worked with companies like Arts Umbrella and Theatre Replacement, and is thrilled for the opportunity to be a part of the Brave New Play Rites Festival.
Bloody Mary, by Cara McKenna
Bloody Mary is a spooky comedy about a wannabe witch who wants to summon demonic forces—but gets more than she bargained for when Bloody Mary herself appears in the mirror and offers to help her get to hell.
Bio: Cara McKenna is a UBC Creative Writing major who writes, as one classmate once put it, “odes to strangeness.” She is also a journalist and editor who has worked in newsrooms across the country and holds a Journalism Diploma from Langara College. She is originally from Treaty 6 territory.
Ripe, by Rayne Weinstein
Ripe is a tragedy about a neurotic mechanic mourning the death of his fortune-teller best friend, following a near-biblical flood that has left them stranded on a rooftop. Unbeknownst to him, her spirit lingers restlessly as she attempts to come to terms with her death.
Bio: Rayne Weinstein is a writer, artist, and musician from Vancouver currently studying Creative Writing at UBC. They have an interest in writing for stage, short fiction, songwriting, funky shirts, Japanese literature, the apocalypse, and writing very impressive bios.
Siren Song, by Sydney Marino
Siren Song is a play about a mythical Siren and the fisherman who falls under her spell. They must fight against her enchanting song in hopes of saving his life and freeing her from her murderous curse.
Bio: Sydney Marino is in her final year of the Creative Writing BFA. Her plays have been produced by Killarney Theatre, featured in the 2020 Brave New Play Rites online festival, and read in the Arts Club’s LEAP playwriting intensive. She’s excited to be a part of BNPR again this year.
Patient 7: Solya,
by Kristos
Patient 7: Solya is a sci-fi thriller about Dr. Lee, a military scientist, who must negotiate compliance from a highly radioactive soldier, challenging both personal and professional ethics.
Bio: Kristos is a Creative Writing and Honours Theatre studies double major. Involved with the performing arts since age five, Kristos’ craft has been shaped by esteemed instructors present and passed: Geraldo Avila, Bill Elliot, Dr. Jacob Hamm, Neil Cadger, Stephen Mallory, Trish Allen, Peter Loeffler, Dr. Kristy Johnston and Lyn Vernon.
Leap,
by Anjali Jay
Leap is a drama following Noa, a dancer desperate to forge her way in life as she battles her own demons in order to find success.
Bio: Anjali Jay is a dancer, actor, and writer. She has worked professionally on stage and in television and film for the past twenty years. She lives on Vancouver Island and is currently a recurring character on NBC’s “Debris”.
lavender.grid.stop,
by Renae Mae Miller
lavender.grid.stop is a surreal two-hander about a man waiting for a bus who can’t seem to take his eyes off a woman drawing with lavender chalk in the middle of the road.
Bio: Renae Mae Miller is currently completing her MFA at UBC. She is a playwright who has had her work performed at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Renae is passionate about absurdism, magical realism, and one act plays.
Kris I Talk Trauma, by Islay Burgess
Kris I Talk Trauma is a dramedy about Kris who wants to improvise a really affecting monologue for BNPR, but can’t, because he gets caught up in memories and realizes story telling is a lot harder when it’s so personal.
Bio: Islay Burgess is a 24-year-old multi-disciplinary writer and artist. His work mostly examines everyday lapses in communication, the aesthetics of gendered trauma and social isolation through a queer lens. His past works—”Bound”, “Self-Insert”, and “TL;DR” were produced in Kingston, Ontario.
Syco,
by Paul Van Dyck
Syco is a comedy about an actor trying to perform an outdoor poetic re-imagining of The Tempest but is interrupted by a woman living on the street who may or may not be an actual witch.
Bio: Paul Van Dyck is a writer, director, producer, and sound designer based in Montreal, Toronto, and Los Angeles. His work has been produced throughout Canada and around the world, and has received numerous awards for his productions. An intrepid world traveler, Paul has visited over eighty countries. He is currently perusing his Masters in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.